The Latest: Bodies of 3 firefighters removed from scene

CHELAN, Wash. (AP) — The latest on wildfires in Washington state that killed three firefighters (all times local):

6:15 p.m.

The bodies of three firefighters killed battling a blaze in Washington state have been removed from the scene by a procession of emergency vehicles.

Each man was taken out Thursday afternoon in an individual ambulance, escorted by more than a dozen fire and police vehicles with lights flashing. Firefighters along the route held their hands and helmets over their hearts.

The Forest Service has identified the fallen firefighters as 20-year-old Tom Zbyszewski (buh-CHEV’-skee), 26-year-old Andrew Zajac and 31-year-old Richard Wheeler.

Authorities have said the men’s vehicle crashed and flames rolled over them before they could escape.

Twisp Police Chief Paul Budrow says the bodies had been left were they fell Wednesday so investigators could take photographs and map out the scene. A complete investigation is expected to take many weeks.

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4:15 p.m.

Whitman College President Kathleen Murray says one of three firefighters who died fighting a fire in Twisp, Washington, was a student at the school.

Murray broke the news about 20-year-old Tom Zbyszewski (buh-CHEV’-skee) to students and staff in an email.

The college says Zbyszewski was a junior studying physics. He was very involved in the theater department at the private school in Walla Walla.

He was working with a U.S. Forest Service crew fighting in Okanogan (oh-kah-NAH’-guhn) County, near his hometown of Carlton.

In addition to his love of theater, the school says he also had a passion for the Chinese language.

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3 p.m.

Authorities have released the names of the three firefighters who were killed when they were overrun by flames in Washington state.

The Forest Service identified the fallen firefighters as Tom Zbyszewski, 20; Andrew Zajac, 26; and Richard Wheeler, 31. No hometowns were released.

Authorities say their vehicle crashed Wednesday and flames rolled over them before they could escape.

Four other firefighters nearby were injured, one critically.

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11:20 a.m.

Gov. Jay Inslee says Washington is facing an “unprecedented cataclysm” from the many fires raging across the dry state.

At a Thursday news conference with fire officials in central Washington, Inslee praised the courage of the 3,000 firefighters battling wildfires in the state. He says the state was grieving three firefighters killed Wednesday near Twisp, words echoed by Washington’s U.S. senators and fire managers.

Inslee says the fires “have burned a big hole in our state’s heart.”

The governor says more than 450 square miles were burning in the state this year, an increase from about 390 square miles last year.

Fire officials warned that winds topping 40 miles per hour would complicate efforts Thursday and that the blazes would almost certainly spread.

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10:56 a.m.

Authorities say three firefighters killed and four injured were overrun by flames as they battled blazes in the same area of Washington state.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers says the three who died were in a vehicle that crashed but that the “crash did not kill them.” His office was investigating the scene Thursday, then will turn it over to federal investigators, who will try to determine how the fire overran the firefighters.

Rogers says homes burned Wednesday night in the Twisp and Winthrop areas, about 115 miles northeast of Seattle, but he did not know how many.

He says it was “a nightmare” that night and that “everything was burning.”

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9:50 a.m.

A firefighter critically injured battling blazes in Washington state has burns over about 60 percent of his body.

Officials at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle said Thursday he is a 25-year-old man from Puyallup.

Three firefighters were killed Wednesday and three others injured as crews fought raging wildfires advancing on towns in the north-central part of the state, some of the many blazes burning uncontrolled throughout the arid West.